Mia's out!

Today Mia was discharged from the clinic. She was there for two days over 6 weeks. We're going to spend the week at my parents' house - I wanted to stay a few days in case she regresses so badly I need some help, but I couldn't get a flight out on Sunday or Monday and had to wait until Wednesday the 22nd. But that's okay - she's not in summer school because it has already started, so it's not like she has anything to do in Arizona. The only reasons I'd like to be home are because we both miss Mommy and Norah and she has some more toys at home, but she'll be fine for the week.

We're very happy with the work she did at the clinic and how well the staff worked with her. I don't have any idea if her advances will carry over as well as we're hoping, but I do hope she continues to make some progress. Of course, tonight at dinner she didn't want to eat anything - naturally - but I can chalk that up to me allowing her to have some snacks earlier in the afternoon and the fact that we ate a bit later than she's been eating and I think she was very tired. But I keep thinking that she's going to go back to being a pill. Sigh. We shall see.

Anyway, it was her last day, and she had a nice party (with brownies and macaroni and cheese, her favorite meal these days), and the staff was very nice as they said goodbye. I took a few pictures:


She never got her OT's name right. She knew several kids' names, including ones I hardly ever saw, and her speech therapist's name, but not her OT's. How sad! (Considering how awesome she was, Mia should have learned her name. Of course, it's entirely possible Mia didn't learn it because her OT made her work so hard.)


If you wanted anything done around the clinic, you spoke to this lady. She too is awesome.


Here's a nice staff photograph. Mia always smiles nicely a split second before the camera takes the picture. Clearly I need a faster camera!

Once again, I'd like to thank the entire staff at Good Shepherd (if any of them happen to be reading). I don't know how well Mia will do going forward, but she's made a lot of progress since the beginning of May, and we all hope we can keep it going as we move forward.

Norah enjoys her time in Pennsylvania

Krys and Norah arrived here a week ago (well, the 3rd of June, but that's close enough) and they left this morning (after their flight last night was cancelled, but luckily we hadn't left them at the airport yet, so they just spent another night at my parents' house). They had a good time, and it was nice to see them. Krys, of course, was very happy to see Mia (more about her in a day or two), so that was keen. We had a nice picnic at my parents' house on Saturday the 4th - we brought Mia down and invited a bunch of people who either hadn't seen the rest of my family in a long time or had never met them. Mia enjoyed herself:



Krys and Norah went up to the Ithaca, New York region for a day to see Krys's sister, and then, this past Friday, we went to Hershey Park with my mom, my sister, and my sister's kids. Arizona is largely bereft of amusement parks (too hot in the summer?), so it's always a treat to visit one when we're here. The day wasn't too hot, and as many kids were still in school, it wasn't too crowded (there were plenty of school groups, but not as many people in general). So we got to ride several roller coasters, the kids got to ride a bunch of rides (unfortunately for Norah and her female cousin, they were just a tiny bit too short to ride the bigger rides, even though they wanted to), and a good time was had by all.

Here are some of the pictures from the trip:

This is Norah and her cousin on one of the kiddie rides.



My sister and her kids; Krys and Norah on the Ferris wheel.



The kids wanted to go on the giant log flume that gets you really wet, but they were too small. So they stood on the bridge across where it comes down, which has the same effect.

Trust me, Norah is in this picture. She's standing by the pillar to the right.

Mission accomplished!


Here's one of the roller coasters we rode. It was pretty danged awesome.


Here are the kids on their rides. I missed Norah's face in the first one.


They absolutely loved this ride. They rode it thrice before we almost had to drag them away from it.


Norah was disappointed she couldn't go on the big swings. She got over it when she rode the smaller swings.


Norah also had a good time with the stairs in my parents' house - we don't have stairs in Arizona, so they were quite the novelty. She also had fun with my mom's collection of dolls, some of which she had when she was a girl in the 1940s, others that my sister had when she was a kid. Norah digs dolls, of course, so she had a grand time with them.

I was hoping that Mia and I could go home with them, but Mia still has a little bit more time at the clinic. Not much, but some. But that's a post for another day!